Abstract
Manufacturing sector is considered to be the second highest contributor in greenhouse gases emissions in EU, secondary to energy sector. The environmental impact of products, processes, and infrastructures of manufacturing is defined as the mass equivalent of carbon dioxide emissions, also known as carbon footprint, because carbon dioxide accounts for the largest portion of greenhouse gases emissions. The aim of this review is to show the impact of manufacturing on carbon emissions and to investigate the importance of carbon emission factors on the carbon footprint of manufacturing. This was performed via (1) mapping and categorizing the sources of carbon emission at process, machine, and system level; (2) identifying the weight factor of carbon emissions factors via sensitivity analysis; and (3) determining which carbon emission factor has the heaviest contribution in carbon footprint calculation. In all examples of the sensitivity analysis, it was shown that carbon emission factor for electrical energy was the only contributing factor at process level while being the strongest at machine level. At system level, the strongest contributor was the carbon emission factor for material production. To reduce the carbon emissions, one must identify the tuneable parameters at process, machine, and system level, from material, machine tool, and energy point of view. However, the highest reduction in carbon footprint can be achieved by reducing the carbon emission factors of electrical energy using renewable power sources such as solar or wind and by reducing the carbon emission factors for material production using recycling materials as “raw” material.
Highlights
Manufacturing is defined as the transformation of raw materials into products, being among the top human activities worldwide [1]
This review aims to investigate the environmental impact of manufacturing, by (1) collating the equations and approaches from literature, (2) formulating the general equations for carbon footprint calculation, regardless the process, and (3) identifying the impact of qualitative and quantitative parameters use the carbon footprint
Manufacturing is accompanied with carbon emissions, with each product/process related to a specific carbon footprint, based on the specific material, machine tool, and energy used
Summary
Manufacturing is defined as the transformation of raw materials into products, being among the top human activities worldwide [1]. Statistics (Eurostat) has placed manufacturing as the second highest contributor, second to energy sector that includes electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply [3]. This definition of energy sector includes demands from manufacturing sector. To address the urging issue of increasing carbon emissions, European Union (EU) has published directives for short-term sustainable growth [4] and long-term carbon neutral economy [5]. The short-term directives focus in decreasing the carbon emissions of products/services within EU, while the longer-term strategy aims to create a carbon neutral and circular economy in EU
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